Sakti Sodhana

Sakti Sodhana, a religious ceremony in connection with the Sakti, or personified energy of Deity among the Hindus. The object of worship in this case should be a dancing girl, a harlot, a washer woman, or barber's wife, a female of the Brahminical or Sudra tribe, a flower girl, or a milkmaid. The ceremony is performed at midnight with a party of eight, nine, or eleven couples. Appropriate mantras are to be used, according to the description of the person selected for the Sakti, who is then to be worshipped according to the prescribed form. She is placed disrobed, but richly ornamented, on the left of a circle described for the purpose, with various mantras and gesticulations, and is to be rendered pure by the repetition of different formulas. Being finally sprinkled over with wine, the act being sanctified by the peculiar mantra, the Sakti is now purified; but if not previously initiated, she is further to be made an adept by the communication of the radical mantra whispered thrice in her ear, when the object of the ceremony is complete.